It is almost 40 years since the birth of the popular Japan Animation character Lupin III, the world’s greatest thief. Lupin III content extends into many fields, from fashion and games to pachinko (Japanese pinball) machines, to TV specials to be rolled out in 2009–10. Our brief was to increase interest in the character and boost sales in the various related content areas. Anime fans aged 10–39 were the targets.

Strategy: the client wanted buzz. We wanted to sew the seeds of buzz through guerrilla advertising on the street that got fans in existing SNS anime communities involved. News media reporting would then spread the campaign content onto regular blogs. At the same time, concurrent as-it-is-happening reporting on Twitter, YouTube and Flicker would spread the word further still.

Big Steals started from a big city in Tokyo, Shibuya, and expanded to several cities in Japan in a month. For the announcement of the Big Steals, we made a special press kit for the media to announce the beginning of the Big Steals.Based on the ideas collected online on what people want to steal in Japan, Lupin robbed numerous things including:1. A stone statue popular as a meeting spot in Shibuya, Tokyo, which is 2 meters and weights 3 tons.2. A popular mascot doll on the street of Osaka (akin Colonek Sanders of KFC).3. Cover pages of popular magazines and transit ads on trains.4. A Fiat from the Fiat Showroom.5. Websites all over Japan.At the same time, the progression of the Big Steal was reported in real-time on the project website, SNS, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

As a result of the campaign, the level of recognition for Lupin III heightened, and the related products achieved the sales quota. The special television broadcast of the programme exceeded the viewing rate of the previous year, improving it from 12% to 17.6%. The Big Steal became a hot topic among the mass media. The PR activities using the Big Steal were taken up as the top news on Yahoo! as well more than 230 TV shows, over 45 newspapers and magazines, and 185 news websites, generating a big hype. At the scene of the Steals, people gathered to witness the Big Steals and took pictures. More than 800 blogs reported the story.